Finish Line
by zookitty
Summary: MovieVerse: He had to make it to the finish line...the finish line meant help. When Speed is injured during a race, Racer X is the only one who can help. Brother fluff.


**AN:** I absolutely loved this movie! Honestly it was so fantastic. I couldn't resist writing something fun for these brothers. I'm sure this will be the first of many, so I hope you enjoy!

Major thanks to Stef (Greenleofiend) for the awesome beta job, you rock my socks of giiirl!

* * *

He didn't see it coming. The Thunder Sisters bullying him. Head hunters trying to push him out of the race. X was somewhere ahead of him, close but not close enough to help. Still, he was making it until…

Out of no where a third car leapt over the others, not a part of their team just a greedy racer that saw an opportunity. The pass narrowed, barely room enough for two cars. The thunder team dropped back, leaving only Speed and the racer named Bullseye.

It all happened so fast. They spun around the curve, his opponent's gaze met his for a split second. With a flick of Bullseye's wrist something landed in the seat beside him. The next turn was one of the most dangerous. He heard Trixie's voice in his ear but couldn't focus. His eyes dropped to the round black ball in the seat beside him, gloved hand reaching for it. Bullseye had pulled away and one of the thunder sisters was back, slamming into his bumper. Speed pitched forward, and so did the ball landing in the floor with a thunk. The young Racer gripped the wheel tighter, maneuvering with an ease that came from more than training.

The second thunder sister slammed him in the side. A wisp of gray rose from the car. To anyone watching it would seem like smoke coming from the engine after the last bump, but Speed knew better. He saw it rising from the floor beside him where the mysterious ball was disintegrating.

He also knew it wasn't smoke.

Speed coughed as the strange gas filled his lungs, a haze settling over his mind. The road seemed to dance in front of his eyes. He tried to focus past the hallucinations. To listen to what the car needed, but he couldn't hear her. He couldn't hear Trixie, he couldn't hear anything past the roaring in his ears.

The thunder sisters slammed him in unison, and he simple let go of the wheel. Speed watched in fascination as it spun wildly, and tried to remember why that scared him. He felt himself slam against the dash, watched the edge of the course rise up beside him. He was sideways now, and falling, but darkness reached up mercifully and took him away.

--

"X, Speed is in trouble," Trixie fretted. The older racer didn't need to be told twice. He pulled back, the cars parting for him easily. Racers didn't have any problem with a car going backwards. X got there just in time to see the smoke billowing from his baby brother's car, to see the caddy sisters ram him from behind and the side, to see Speed completely lose control and spiral over the edge.

X jerked the Shooting Star to the side, edging down the slope Speed was fortunate to get caught on.

"Speed!" he called, trudging through the snow toward the Mock Five. "Speed!" The race all but forgotten behind him.

He saw his brother slumped against the harness, head hanging limp. X felt his own heart rate double as he pulled open the damaged car door and slid in beside the younger Racer. He tilted Speed's head back gingerly and saw blood running down his face.

Rex worked with gentleness; the enemies he had made over his long run in the business would have never believed possible. He pulled Speed free of the harness, laying the sweat drenched head against his leg and easing off the helmet. Black bangs were plastered to Speed's forehead, caked with scarlet. X brushed them aside and winced at the ugly gash across his brother's forehead. He fumbled for the bandages he remembered Pops always kept under the seats and with them softly tended to Speed's head wound.

Next he carefully began probing the younger's chest. Speed flinched at the touch, and Rex felt the uncomfortable give of broken ribs. The kid's eyelids slowly rose, bleary gaze met X's worried one. The older winced at how uneven those pupils were.

"X?" The word was strained, azure eyes slowly widened. "Wha…"

"They pushed you off," Rex explained, his tone low and soothing. "You're gonna be ok." He shifted a little away from his brother and spoke into the radio. "Trixie, we need a medical team right now."

"Is Speed ok?"

"Trixie now!" Without waiting for a response he turned his attention back to the head listing against his side.

"What about the race?" Speed's mumble was so low that the older almost didn't hear it. X laughed mirthlessly.

"Is that all you Racers can think about?"

"You have to finish the race Rex."

X had to stop himself from physically reeling back. He had been shocked when Speed figured it out originally, but he had at least thought his lie worked. He looked for recognition in those blue eyes and found only the wildly darting gaze of a slowly setting fever. Any response he had was cut off as the radio came to life in his ear.

"Racer X, the medical teams are on the way, but their struggling. Conditions are just getting too bad," Trixie explained, worry evident in the timbre of her voice. X cursed under his breath, and looked down as the unsteady gaze finally caught his.

"Finish the race Rex," Speed whispered, a wet cough escaping his lips. Fear gripped X's heart at the blood now on his little brother's lips.

"I'm not leaving you," he said, than forced out "and I'm not Rex."

"Yes you are, I know you are…you are. Yes you are," the muttering continued, as the coherency of his words fading. Rex glanced back at the snow quickly covering the track. The racers would be struggling in the unexpected weather and the less versatile medical teams hardly stood a chance. Speed's skin was growing warm under his hand _now._

He ran his fingers across the younger Racer's neck and spine gingerly, checking for breaks. Other than the obviously ribs he seemed intact. X had no way of gauging the head wound, or the cause of the crimson Speed was coughing. Just another reason he needed to get the kid to help and fast.

Rex shifted his brother's head to his shoulder and slipped one arm under the kids back and the other under his knees. A twinge of sadness swept over him when he realized his baby brother was nearly as tall as he was now, and that he had missed the process.

"It was for the best, kid," he whispered into Speed's hair, as he raised them both up with a grunt. Luckily, Speed was always light and thin for his age. Matted black hair rubbed against his cheek. It smelled like blood and strawberries. X couldn't stifle a grin. Probably Trixie's shampoo.

X carried him back to the Shooting Star, placing him in the passenger seat. The car seemed ready to accept him, as Rex charily secured him in. Speed leaned heavily on the passenger door, fully unconscious now.

He kicked the car into gear and pulled back out onto the track. He was too far behind to win or even place, but he would finish the race for his brother and get Speed to help that much faster.

Racer X busted down the track, pushing his baby as fast as it would go. Strangely the added weight of Speed didn't slow them down any. In fact, the car seemed even more balanced than before. As if all it was missing was the weight of the younger Racer. As if it had been made to harbor both of the brothers.

He approached the few stragglers, weaving past them with ease. The weather had given him the advantage he needed to put him back in the race, slowing the other drivers enough for him to catch up. Not that Rex carried, or even noticed. His mind was full of only one thing.

The finish line meant help.

--

Speed was hungry. It was only after this realization hit him that he began to wonder why he was horizontal. He recognized the smell of antiseptic. Oh great. He was in the hospital. _Again. _

He peeled his eyes open gingerly and glanced around the hospital room. The chair beside him was empty.

Speed had woken up in a hospital room a few more times than was healthy for Pops—or himself for that matter—but this was the first and only time he had ever woken up in a hospital room alone.

"I sent them to get some food."

Speed started, looking toward the shadows beside him. Apparently he wasn't as alone as he first thought.

"X?"

The older racer came over to the bed so he could see him.

"They were hard to get rid of I must admit, your family really cares for you," Racer X continued, in a tone that sounded wistful.

"What happened?"

X lowered himself to the seat next to Speed, his expression unreadable. "You don't remember?"

"Not really," the young racer admitted.

"You were sabotaged by another racer and then ran off the road," X informed him, "There were traces of a drug called Apharin in your system. It dulled your senses which caused your reactions to slow making it easy for the Thunder Sisters to run you off. The gas also inflamed your throat which caused you to cough up blood." Speed smirked.

"You sound like a doctor," he teased groggily.

"So you don't remember anything about yesterday?"

"Nope," Speed replied, "Not a thing." X shifted his weight and nodded.

"I'll go and tell your parents you're awake," the older replied walking toward the door.

"Hey X…" Speed waited till the man turned back toward him, "Thanks."

X tilted his head toward the younger. "Be careful Speed," he replied, closing the door behind him as he left. Speed leaned back into the soft pillows.

"You too…Rex."


End file.
